Has John McCain gone too far? Has his "base", the so-called Main Stream Media, finally found the backbone to call McCain the liar that he is? Or is the MSM sick to heart at themselves for following the Lee Atwater/Karl Rove playbook for the last 20 years?
Indications are that one or more of the above questions is being answer by editorial pages with a resounding YES, as more and more newspapers are running editorial denouncing McCain. And they are not mincing words.
From Steve Champan at the Chicago Tribune, Sept. 14, 2008
Now politicians are not saints, and campaigns are not conducted under oath. We all expect a certain amount of deceit from people running for office, in the form of fudging, distortion, exaggeration and omission. But the McCain campaign's approach, as this episode illustrates, is of an entirely different scale and character. It is to normal political attacks what Hurricane Ike is to a drive-through carwash. snip The assumption behind the McCain strategy is that truth is irrelevant. snip Why does McCain insist on running such a mendacious campaign? snip But McCain has concluded that a fact-based case about Obama isn't enough to prevail in November. So he has chosen to smear his opponent with ridiculous claims that he thinks the American people are gullible enough to believe. He has charged repeatedly that his opponent is willing to lose a war to win an election. What's McCain willing to lose to become president? Nothing so consequential as a war. Just his soul.
Tony Norman at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept. 14, 2008
How deep is the hole you've fallen into, John McCain? Is it deeper than the one you once occupied as a guest of the North Vietnamese? How many splinters did your advisers have to shove under your nails to get you to recite the litany of boldly imagined falsehoods that has become your mantra day after day? Is any light allowed to penetrate your self-imposed darkness? Do you find yourself stirring in a bed of your own making, nostalgic for lost honor and a clear conscience? snip Your new home is the self-imposed darkness of a man who jettisoned his principles for an even shot at the highest office in the land. You once said you'd rather lose an election than lose a war. Is it worth winning an election if it means forfeiting your soul on the altar of political expediency? How does a man survive five years in a Vietnamese dungeon only to allow himself to be turned into a cynical marionette by the nihilistic disciples of Karl Rove? Now you're putty in the hands of the same men who portrayed you as mentally and emotionally unstable during the Republican primaries of 2000. They buried you under a compost of innuendo and lies in South Carolina. Where is the honor in adapting the tactics of men who once mocked you as a Manchurian candidate eight years ago? snip Where is the honor in reciting lies for something as transient as political advantage? snip Where is the honor in reciting lies for something as transient as political advantage?
Jay Bookman at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 13, 2008
The volume and audacity of lies pouring from the McCain campaign is startling and even historic. This one may represent a new low — at least a new low as of Sept. 13. snip That’s really something, lying straight out about a FactCheck group, knowing that you’re going to get caught but not giving a damn about it. With stuff like this, the McCain camp has cut any remaining tethers to reality and integrity and is now floating wherever the winds of illusion and whimsy may take them. It’s quite remarkable, and quite insulting to the intelligence of the American people.
Barb Shelly at The Kansas City Star, Sept. 11, 2008
These are old tricks we’ve been seeing in local elections for years. Distort. Twist. Deceive. Damage. And the winning candidate drags a load of public contempt into office. I had hoped for better from McCain. He told us, in his moving speech at the Republican National Convention, that he loves his country. But surely he knows his country suffers from a bitter partisan wound. You don’t show love by shoving the knife deeper into the cut. snip John McCain may win the presidency this way, but he will lose the respect he has acquired over the years.
Scot Lehigh at the Boston Globe, Sept. 12, 2008
HERE'S THE QUESTION voters should be asking themselves this week: Just how stupid does the McCain-Palin campaign think I am?
The answer: Dumb enough to hoodwink with charges so contrived and cynical they make your teeth ache. snip No matter. The McCain campaign has shown it's ready and willing to say preposterous things to win.
Now, it's true the Obama camp has been guilty of some distortions of its own. Still, it's the McCain team that has made leveling false or misleading accusations its modus operandi.
The more the merrier.
Updated with links.
Chapman link
Norman lin
Bookman link
Shelly link
Lehigh link